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Changes to re-enactment at Crysler's Farm

Captain Dan Williams (left) and his wife Marie-Eve DuFort (right) of the 19th Light Dragoons participate in the reenactment of the Battle of Crysler's Farm on Saturday, July 11, 2015 in Cornwall, Ont. The volunteer reenactors are responsible to buy their own equipment and tend to their own horses. Brent Holmes/Cornwall Standard-Freeholder/Postmedia Network

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If a visitor to the ever-popular military re-enactment this Saturday at the Battle of Crysler Farm Memorial notices some big changes, they're right.

Two different battles will be staged.

"The first battle re-enactment on Saturday will be the skirmish at Hoople Creek," said Dave Connors, president of the Friends of Crysler Farm, the organization which partners with the St. Lawrence Parks Commission for the re-enactments.

The Battle of Hoople Creek, which took place on Nov. 10, 1813, is the often overlooked engagement between the advancing American army against local militias assembled to harass the enemy as it moved toward Cornwall in 1813.

Because the Hoople Creek skirmish involved a watercourse and considerable forest over, Connors said visitors will be treated to a new experience, different than "re-enactors who just follow each other onto a field, line-up and shoot each other."

Connors said the Hoople Creek affair will also involve some citizens of the period getting caught up in the proceedings.

A Battle of Hoople Creek re-enactment did take place in 2014, on the Long Sault Parkway, involving terrain not much different than the actual thing.

The new re-enactment is just one of several changes being introduced this year to freshen up the re-enactment weekend. Connors said the military encampment that is set up to the east of the battle staging area will have a stronger emphasis on detailing army life for members of the aristocracy, which made up the Dragoons cavalry unit.

"The aristocracy officers will be in big tents, unlike the small tents used for the infantry," Connors said. "Inside there will, for example, fine china, to give an idea of what it was like for the higher levels of the military."

With this emphasis, the Crysler Farm re-enactment will also involve a larger cavalry unit demonstration.

"It's very popular with people because visually it's quite a sight."

Other activities preceding the re-enactments will be cannon run, a race demonstration of the artillery units, and the children's muster, where young spectators are asked to volunteer and take part in drills.

The price of admission is $5, but this can also be included for a visit into nearby Upper Canada Village. Children under six are free.

The re-enactments days start at 10 a.m. with the gates opening at 9:30 a.m.